Devastating civil war between the right-wing Spanish Nationalists, led by General Francisco Franco, and supported by Nazi Germany, Italy and Portugal, and the Republican Government forces, supported by the Soviet Union and Mexico. The war lasted from July 1936 to April 1939, increasing tensions throughout Europe, and featuring terrible atrocities on both sides. It ended in victory for the Nationalists, and a dictatorship which was to last until Franco's death in 1975.